


the morning person

by ThinkingCAPSLOCK



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Falling In Love, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 10:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17140070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThinkingCAPSLOCK/pseuds/ThinkingCAPSLOCK
Summary: Being a barista is not all it’s cracked up to be, especially when Shiva has to deal with a new regular. Handsome or not, it's far too early in the morning to be so awake.





	the morning person

**Author's Note:**

> merrymas/happy holidays to my GBF SS [mlkinis!](https://twitter.com/@mlkinis). I've always wanted to write a domestic/modern Shiva/Grimnir story, so getting you was SUPER exciting. Please enjoy! <3

Shiva hates his job. Okay, maybe not every aspect of it: his bosses, Lucifer and Sandalphon, are nice enough, and it’s close enough to his apartment that he can walk to work. But every other part is a living nightmare. Dealing with customers is horrible, and dealing with them at 6 in the morning when you’re the first person they’ve interacted with is a slog and a half. 

Being a barista is really not all it’s cracked up to be. 

It’s between the morning and lunch rushes, a brief lull in an otherwise busy day. Shiva dedicates his small window of downtime to cleaning, wiping down the tables, shifting chairs, replacing the toilet paper. His thoughts drift to his plans for his day off tomorrow (sleeping, feeding his pet snake Clarence, and watching Netflix documentaries on volcanoes). It’s midway through cleaning the table that the bell dings behind him, indicating a customer coming in.

Shiva knows all the regulars by now, and this isn’t one of them. A strange looking man, with two different eye colours and very soft looking periwinkle hair, decked out in a ridiculous, well tailored grey suit lined with bright purple. He takes off his leather gloves and stuffs them in his pocket, a huge grin on his face, showing off pearly white teeth.

Oh, great. A morning person.

"Hello!" the man greets, offering his hand to Shiva to shake. Shiva looks down at it, back up at the stranger’s face, and down at the dirty rag he’s holding in one hand and the bottle of cleaning fluid in the other. The man seems to notice at the same time and lets out a hearty chuckle. "My mistake! Tell me, now, are you the only one on right now? I’d love to order something extra delicious. It’s my first day at a new job, just down the street, and-"

"Of course," Shiva interjects, not wanting to hear this man’s life story when he’s already heard eighteen today. He puts the cleaning supplies down and walks back behind the counter. "What can I get you?"

"Ah, thank you! I’d like your largest size, with as many espresso shots as you're legally allowed to give me in there, followed by dark roast coffee over top, with two shots of vanilla, two of mocha, extra caramel, no whip, no…"

Shiva is pretty sure he enters another dimension processing the order, and wonders no less than six times how the stranger hasn’t run out of air. How did the man have the order memorized? Who needs this much espresso? Why double check if pumpkin flavouring is in season, pause to consider the answer, and then laugh, saying 'throw it in there too'? 

When Shiva finally slides the cup and says, "That’ll be $18.35," he’s pretty much clocked out for the day, even with five hours left on his shift. If the universe is merciful, he’ll have messed it up somehow, and the man will never come back. At the very least, the customer pays with exact change. Then he takes a sip, his two different eyes widening, and a grin breaking over his face all over again.

"Why, I’ve never had a coffee this good in my life!" He brushes back his long bangs, taking another sip, and…giggling? He squares his shoulders, his voice taking on an even more ridiculous air. "I simply cannot imagine ever getting coffee elsewhere. From this day forwards, I shall come to your fine establishment whenever a caffeine craving hits me. It’s such a quaint little place, and you, my good sir…" he pauses, checking Shiva’s name tag, "Shiva, you shall be my favourite barista."

"That’s really not—"

"My name is Grimnir. Grimnir Cyclone. I expect we will be seeing very much of each other!"

"Great," Shiva grumbles, but Grimnir hardly seems to notice. He takes his coffee, laughing, all the way to the door, where he turns around and waves dramatically before scampering off into the city. 

Once he’s out of sight, Shiva lowers his forehead to the counter. It’s going to be a long week. 

#

The week is, in fact, extremely long.

On Wednesday, Shiva listens to a twenty minute speech on how sad Grimnir was that he wasn’t in yesterday, and how excited he is that he’s back. Grimnir had even clasped one of his hands in his. His skin was surprisingly soft, but Shiva tries not to focus on that. On Thursday, he came three times, with three different, equally long orders. Friday he came near closing, though thankfully not within the last five minutes, to buy every remaining pastry available and crack jokes that almost made Shiva laugh. Almost. 

For once, Shiva was looking forward to working Saturday. At the very least, Grimnir and his expensive tailored suit-needing job wouldn’t be at work on the weekend.

This thought contents him for an hour and thirty eight minutes, until Grimnir walks through the door. 

"Shiva! I wasn’t expecting to see you here this fine morning," Grimnir states. 'Fine' is an overstatement: his umbrella is soaked with rain, and the fog outside is so think that Shiva can’t even see the other side of the street. The only people who’ve come in today are two regulars, Zeta and Beatrix, girlfriends and college students working away at essays. And even then, they’re only here because the power went out at the school library. Apparently none of this affects Grimnir’s mood. He’s as happy as ever. "Would you be able to fix me my regular?"

Shiva deadpans, but struggles back to his best customer service voice. "Could you remind me again which drink is your 'regular'?" 

"Sure! It’s…"

What feels like nine hours later, the drink (Shiva doesn’t think the concoction can legally be called a coffee) is made, the near twenty dollars exchanged, and… Grimnir doesn’t leave. He leans on the counter, tapping his chin, seemingly lost in thought. Shiva shifts on his feet, not sure where else to look, so he looks at his apparent favourite customer. 

Grimnir’s hair is slightly damp, clinging to his face, but not enough to make him look unkempt. His tight turtleneck, purple jeans, and rainbow nail polish give him the look of an eccentric artist who just materialized from a music video. Shiva has to admit that he looks… well dressed? Attractive? Probably not that last one. 

Maybe. Though Shiva can’t quite stop staring.

"I think I’d like a doughnut before I head out," Grimnir decides, snapping Shiva out of his definitely-not-a-daydream. He picks a jelly filled one, sliding over the dollar it costs as Shiva offers it to him. Grimnir takes a huge bite, and the jelly explodes out the back, right down his shirt and onto his shoes. 

For three solid seconds, there’s dead silence. Then, as one, Shiva, Beatrix, and Zeta burst out laughing. 

Grimnir takes a look at himself and joins in laughing, shaking his head at himself. Shiva recovers first, trying his best to regain a straight face as he hands napkins over by the fistful for Grimnir to do a little damage control. The girls continue to wheeze in the background, Zeta slapping her knee. 

"Well, at least it only got on me, sparing you having to mop," Grimnir comments, bending down to wipe the red jelly off his shoes. Shiva hefts up the garbage bin from behind the counter so Grimnir doesn’t have to hobble to the other side of the shop to throw the napkins out. "And I must say, Shiva, while you are very attractive deadpan, you have a very beautiful smile."

Shiva freezes, holding the garbage bin awkwardly in his hands. Had Grimnir just… complimented him? He must have misheard. It must be some rainy day induced delirium. He manages to regain control over his limbs and put the garbage bin on the floor. 

"I must be off for now. Thank you again for the coffee, and the laughter." Grimnir nods his head, munching on the mostly jelly-less doughnut as he heads out into the rain. Shiva keeps staring as his figure slips into fog, and longer after that. The only thing that snaps him out is Zeta’s loud snort.

"I think someone has a crush," she says. Beatrix grins. 

Shiva scowls. "I can kick you two out any time I want, you know."

"You wouldn’t dare. After him, we’re your favourites." 

"That’s not—" Shiva bites his lip to silence himself. Protesting will only give them more fuel for the fire. He busies himself cleaning the counter, ignoring their continued giggles and sly looks. It’s not a crush. It’s not like that. They’re clearly both wrong. 

But he can’t help but find himself looking forward to Monday’s shift. 

#

Grimnir is waiting outside the store when Shiva arrives to open up on Monday. Shiva wonders if he’s asleep still and having a dream, since it seems unlikely Grimnir just voluntarily decided to wake up and arrive here at 5:30am when his work doesn’t start until nine. 

Then again, if anyone was going to show up here half an hour before opening, it’s going to be Grimnir. 

"We don’t open ’til six," Shiva says in way of greeting, pausing at the doors. Grimnir jumps, apparently zoned out, but grins as soon as he refocuses. 

"Ah! Don’t worry about that, I’m not here for coffee. Unless you want to make me one?" His grin shows off all his perfect white teeth, and Shiva huffs to avoid answering. "I wanted to give you something to make up for the mess on Saturday."

That makes Shiva blink. "You didn’t really make a mess. It all spilled on you."

"No, no, not that mess. Normally I’m much better at asking people out, but you had me flummoxed!" Shiva’s entire brain ceases to function as Grimnir dramatically sighs, putting the back of his hand against his forehead. "It’s truly tragic, but I am here, humbly, to ask you to dinner this evening, and give you this." 

A piece of paper is thrust into Shiva’s hands. He looks down at it, and his brain, attempting to turn back on, helpfully informs him it contains numbers. His mouth opens and closes, trying to remember which symbol correlates to which number, if it’s enough digits to be a phone number, whether or not he’s going to be behind opening shop, and the fact that the handsome, annoying man he’s been seeing every day asked him out. 

For a Monday morning, it’s a lot to take in. 

"Did I overstep?" Grimnir’s voice comes floating through his thoughts, his regular, overconfident expression replaced with one of concern. "I didn’t want to ask you while you were on shift, that’s completely unfair to you, but perhaps I should have waited a little longer. If—"

"No. No. It’s not that." A deep breath. "And thank you for asking me outside work. I don’t mean literally—we are outside, my work, right now—I just…" Another deep breath. Come on, Shiva. You can do this. "I wasn’t expecting this."

"You can say no! It would be the first time I’ve been turned down, sure, but—"

"No! I mean, no, I don’t want to say no. So, uh, yes. I’m free tonight. For dinner." Shiva has never been flustered before, but something about the man’s awful confidence makes his word stumble out of his mouth. "I’m off work at three today."

"I’m off at five! If there’s anywhere in particular you’d like to go, do text me. I’m still new, after all. And don’t worry about price. It’ll be my treat." He winks, and Shiva physically feels his heart rattle in his rib cage. Zeta had gotten in his head, and now… now he had a date. With the man with the strange eyes and gorgeous suits and soft hands, one of which takes Shiva’s as he stands there, his eyes twinkling in the sunrise.

He is very, very, attractive. 

"Before I go, though, would you mind fixing me my usual? I know it’s a bit early, but I could go for some caffeine. I have exact change, as always." 

And there it is. Shiva snorts, rolling his eyes, taking his hand back in order to unlock the front doors. He nods Grimnir in ahead of him, and the man giggles, pretending to sneak into the shop. Shiva shakes his head, but feels a small smile spreading on his face. Annoying, but entertaining. Fun.

He doesn’t have to ask for Grimnir to repeat the order this time. He’s already memorized it.


End file.
